Chapter 3
Two police officers showed up twenty minutes later.
They were both women.
Young.
Tough.
Their uniforms crisp, their badges glinting under the harsh hospital lights.
The taller one, Officer Carter, pulled a chair up next to my bed.
Her partner, Officer Mendez, stood by the door, notebook open.
“Ms. Carter?” Officer Carter said, smiling gently. “I’m Officer Carter. This is my partner, Officer Mendez. We’re here because Dr. Hale reported some injuries she’s concerned about. Can you tell us what happened?”
I told them everything.
I started with the first time Ethan had hit me, three months after our wedding.
A slap across the face because I’d forgotten to iron his shirt for a work meeting.
I told them about the name-calling.
The control.
How he’d slowly cut me off from all my friends and family, telling me they were bad influences.
How he’d made me quit my first job because my boss was a man who “looked at me wrong.”
How I’d gotten this new job behind his back, only for him to find out and demand I hand over every paycheck.
I told them about his mother.
How she’d hated me from the second we met because I wasn’t “docile enough.”
How she’d egged Ethan on, telling him I needed to be “broken in.”
How she’d spit in my food more than once when she thought I wasn’t looking.
I told them about tonight.
The shove.
The soup.
Lying on the floor for six hours.
Ethan’s words about putting women in their place.
I talked for almost an hour.
When I was done, my throat was raw.
I felt lighter than I had in years.
Like I’d been carrying a boulder on my chest and someone had finally lifted it off.
Officer Carter closed her notebook.
Her face was hard, but her eyes were soft.
“Elena, that is one of the bravest things I’ve ever heard,” she said. “We’re going to do everything we can to make sure these people never hurt you again. First thing tomorrow morning, we’re going to go before a judge and get you a temporary restraining order. No contact from Ethan or either of his parents. They can’t come within five hundred feet of you, your job, or anywhere you’re staying. If they violate it, they go straight to jail.”
“Where will I stay?” I asked, panic flaring in my chest. “I can’t go back to that house. I don’t have any money. Ethan took it all.”
Mrs. Greene, who’d been sitting quietly in the corner the whole time, leaned forward.
“She’ll stay with me,” she said, firm as stone. “I’ve got three bedrooms. She can have the whole second floor if she wants. No one’s going to bother her there. I’ve got a baseball bat by my bed and I know how to use it.”
Officer Mendez actually smiled.
“Sounds like a plan,” she said.
They left after that, promising to be back at nine the next morning with the restraining order paperwork.
Mrs. Greene pulled her chair up next to my bed and took my hand.
“Get some sleep, baby,” she said. “I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be right here when you wake up.”
I closed my eyes.
For the first time in two years, I didn’t lie awake waiting for the other shoe to drop.
I didn’t flinch at every little sound from the hallway.
I slept.
Deep and dreamless.
I woke up at seven the next morning to the sound of my phone buzzing on the nightstand.
I’d forgotten I even had it.
It was in the pocket of my jeans, which Mrs. Greene had folded and left on the chair.
I reached for it, my ribs screaming in protest.
Twelve missed calls.
All from Ethan.
Thirty-seven text messages.
I opened them, my hands shaking.
Elena where the hell are you?
You think you can run from me?
I swear to God when I find you you’re going to regret this.
My mom’s worried sick about you. Come home right now and we’ll forget this ever happened.
If you don’t come back in the next hour I’m calling the police and reporting you missing.
You’re nothing without me, Elena. No one else is ever going to want you.
I’m going to find you.
And when I do, you’ll wish you’d never been born.
My blood turned to ice in my veins.
I dropped the phone like it was on fire.
He was looking for me.
He knew I’d gone to Mrs. Greene’s.
Of course he did.
She was the only person I ever talked to.
The door to my hospital room burst open.
I screamed, flinching back against the pillows, my hands flying up to protect my face.
It was just a nurse, coming in with my breakfast tray.
“Sorry, honey,” she said, her face falling when she saw me shaking. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“It’s okay,” I whispered, my heart hammering against my cracked ribs. “I’m just… jumpy.”
I looked at the phone again, lying face down on the bed.
Ethan was out there.
He was angry.
May you like
He was looking for me.
And for the first time since I’d woken up, I was scared all over again.
